No Urdu classes since last year, reason lack of qualified teachers

Aakanksha N Bhardwaj

Jalandhar, June 29

No Urdu classes have been held in Jalandhar since last year due to the unavailability of teacher and those who want to learn the language are making rounds of the district office. Reportedly, such a situation has cropped up for the first time ever since the classes began. Even the district officials have also been giving advertisements everywhere for an Urdu teacher who has done MA.

Until now, just two applications have been received by the Language Department but none of them have done masters in the language. Now, the applications have been sent to the state level authorities to take a call on the same.

Around 50-60 learners would enrol themselves for Urdu classes in Jalandhar every year.

Also, in Nawanshahr, it is for the first time that Urdu classes will be started and every effort is being made to propagate the news of starting of Urdu classes in the district.

Sandeep Singh, a research officer from Nawanshahr, said he had uploaded a post regarding commencing of classes on social media, WhatsApp groups. Apart from this, he has also been approaching college and school principals so that the interested students could join the classes. “I have already started receiving several calls and many are showing interest,” Singh said.

Ashraf Mehmood Nandan, Assistant Director, Language Department, said the department wanted to begin classes in every district now. “The government really wants to promote the language. We have been sending press releases across so that we can get teachers too. Hopefully, we will find qualified teachers soon,” he said.

‘Urdu Aamoz’, a hit

Recently, the Language Department had also published its own first Urdu teaching book by the name, ‘Urdu Aamoz’. The book has become a hit amongst the language lovers and every copy has been sold in Jalandhar.